My first mystery, "Antler Dust," was published in 2007 and made the best-seller list on The Denver Post. Two years later, it was back on the same list. Great reviews from The Aspen Times and Great Falls (Montana) Tribune, among others.

The sequel, "Buried by the Roan," was published in August, 2011. (Said Margaret Coel: "Flat-out terrific.") It was a finalist for the 2012 Colorado Book Award.

The third, "Trapline," came out in 2014 and won the Colorado Book Award the next year. And "Lake of Fire," number four, was published in 2015 and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in 2016.

I’ve worked as a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston and Los Angeles, covering a variety of events and issuesI’m the son of two librarians.

My first mystery, "Antler Dust," was published in 2007 and made the best-seller list on The Denver Post. Two years later, it was back on the same list. Great reviews from The Aspen Times and Great Falls (Montana) Tribune, among others.

The sequel, "Buried by the Roan," was published in August, 2011. (Said Margaret Coel: "Flat-out terrific.") It was a finalist for the 2012 Colorado Book Award.

The third, "Trapline," came out in 2014 and won the Colorado Book Award the next year. And "Lake of Fire," number four, was published in 2015 and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in 2016.

I’ve worked as a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston and Los Angeles, covering a variety of events and issues from the economy, commercial fishing, the environment, politics and all the colorful people and events of southern California.

I've worked for The Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, also with the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For six years, I produced field documentaries across the United States and Latin America. I covered the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, NASA’s space shuttle disaster, a volcano eruption in Colombia, political upheavals in Nicaragua, and mudslides in Puerto Rico.

Doug Glanville’s The Game From Where I Stand offers a winning combination—a likable narrator and a mountain of colorful details about life off the field and inside the game of baseball. Minor leagues. Opening days. Glove selection. Coaches. Stress. Anxiety. … Continue reading →

Doug Glanville’s “The Game From Where I Stand” offers a winning combination—a likable narrator and tons of colorful details about life off the field and inside the game of baseball.

Minor leagues. Opening days. Glove selection. Coaches. Stress. AnxieDoug Glanville’s “The Game From Where I Stand” offers a winning combination—a likable narrator and tons of colorful details about life off the field and inside the game of baseball.

Minor leagues. Opening days. Glove selection. Coaches. Stress. Anxiety. Relationships. Autographs. Game preparation. Contracts. Money. Retirement. Winter ball. Dealing with reporters. Spring training. Hitting. Traveling. I’m hard-pressed to think of a subject Glanville doesn’t cover and he does it all with an appealing style. What does it feel like to be a professional baseball player? Glanville puts the reader solidly in one player’s cleats.

Glanville, who has written columns for The New York Times and other outlets, comes across as likable and easy-going. Glanville played in the majors from 1996 to 2004, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies. He also also had two stints with the Chicago Cubs and one year with the Texas Rangers. This book was published in 2010 and, well, my only wish is for a more current account that includes how a player views the heavy-duty use of analytics in the game today.

What Glanville does explore, however, seems relatively timeless—particularly the kinds of attitudes ball players develop in order to survive. Glanville did not take being a major leaguer for granted. He played worried. He played with the daily concern that either performance or injury might lead to being demoted or traded. “One team’s trash is another’s treasure,” writes Glanville “I can say I have been both, and either way you slice it, you can’t help but feel like property, even if only for a moment.”

Glanville thanks Jimmy Rollins, who was his protégé, for a poignant piece of advice: Do it afraid. “A healthy amount of fear can lead to great results, to people pushing themselves to the brink of their capabilities … Yes, baseball players are afraid. A player’s career is always a blink in a stare. I retired at the ripe old age of thirty-four following a season of sunflower seeds and only 162 at bats. I had been a starter the year before. In this game, change happens fast.”

Coming up behind every major leaguer is a new crop of players who are younger, faster, stranger (and don’t cost as much). “There is a tipping point in a player’s career where he goes from chasing the dream to running from a nightmare. At that point, ambition is replaced by anxiety; passion is replaced with survival. It is a downhill run, and it spares no one.”

Glanville makes it clear that being a major league baseball player requires living inside a bubble. Glanville is particularly blunt here about the focus and dedication required—as well as the fallout from that level of commitment. “No one keeps statistics for DFP (Depressed Former Players) or DAR (Divorces After Retirement), but I assure you they are plentiful … Behind the bluster and bravado, they are as uncertain and fragile as any other human beings.”

That’s the over-arching flavor of this account, a real human being living a life inside the game. Glanville’s details are terrific—like seeing Randy Johnson eating breakfast at iHOP or his warm-hearted tales from playing winter ball in Puerto Rico—and his reactions at every turn seem genuine. He’s not afraid to reveal how he misplayed a ball that could have kept a no-hitter intact, for instance, and he gives a thoughtful analysis of the whole Steve Bartman alleged interference debacle (Glanville was with the Cubs at the time).

Unlike so many others, Glanville did not become another DFP or DAR stat. He had a level head and open eyes about every phase of the game—and the same thing applied when it came time for Glanville to plan his post-career life (which from all accounts has been successful both in broadcasting and business). Like baseball itself, this book is very much about the game and, of course, it’s about everything else, too. Baseball is life....more

Doug Glanville’s “The Game From Where I Stand” offers a winning combination—a likable narrator and tons of colorful details about life off the field and inside the game of baseball.

Minor leagues. Opening days. Glove selection. Coaches. Stress. AnxieDoug Glanville’s “The Game From Where I Stand” offers a winning combination—a likable narrator and tons of colorful details about life off the field and inside the game of baseball.

Minor leagues. Opening days. Glove selection. Coaches. Stress. Anxiety. Relationships. Autographs. Game preparation. Contracts. Money. Retirement. Winter ball. Dealing with reporters. Spring training. Hitting. Traveling. I’m hard-pressed to think of a subject Glanville doesn’t cover and he does it all with an appealing style. What does it feel like to be a professional baseball player? Glanville puts the reader solidly in one player’s cleats.

Glanville, who has written columns for The New York Times and other outlets, comes across as likable and easy-going. Glanville played in the majors from 1996 to 2004, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies. He also also had two stints with the Chicago Cubs and one year with the Texas Rangers. This book was published in 2010 and, well, my only wish is for a more current account that includes how a player views the heavy-duty use of analytics in the game today.

What Glanville does explore, however, seems relatively timeless—particularly the kinds of attitudes ball players develop in order to survive. Glanville did not take being a major leaguer for granted. He played worried. He played with the daily concern that either performance or injury might lead to being demoted or traded. “One team’s trash is another’s treasure,” writes Glanville “I can say I have been both, and either way you slice it, you can’t help but feel like property, even if only for a moment.”

Glanville thanks Jimmy Rollins, who was his protégé, for a poignant piece of advice: Do it afraid. “A healthy amount of fear can lead to great results, to people pushing themselves to the brink of their capabilities … Yes, baseball players are afraid. A player’s career is always a blink in a stare. I retired at the ripe old age of thirty-four following a season of sunflower seeds and only 162 at bats. I had been a starter the year before. In this game, change happens fast.”

Coming up behind every major leaguer is a new crop of players who are younger, faster, stranger (and don’t cost as much). “There is a tipping point in a player’s career where he goes from chasing the dream to running from a nightmare. At that point, ambition is replaced by anxiety; passion is replaced with survival. It is a downhill run, and it spares no one.”

Glanville makes it clear that being a major league baseball player requires living inside a bubble. Glanville is particularly blunt here about the focus and dedication required—as well as the fallout from that level of commitment. “No one keeps statistics for DFP (Depressed Former Players) or DAR (Divorces After Retirement), but I assure you they are plentiful … Behind the bluster and bravado, they are as uncertain and fragile as any other human beings.”

That’s the over-arching flavor of this account, a real human being living a life inside the game. Glanville’s details are terrific—like seeing Randy Johnson eating breakfast at iHOP or his warm-hearted tales from playing winter ball in Puerto Rico—and his reactions at every turn seem genuine. He’s not afraid to reveal how he misplayed a ball that could have kept a no-hitter intact, for instance, and he gives a thoughtful analysis of the whole Steve Bartman alleged interference debacle (Glanville was with the Cubs at the time).

Unlike so many others, Glanville did not become another DFP or DAR stat. He had a level head and open eyes about every phase of the game—and the same thing applied when it came time for Glanville to plan his post-career life (which from all accounts has been successful both in broadcasting and business). Like baseball itself, this book is very much about the game and, of course, it’s about everything else, too. Baseball is life....more

Shake it up, stir it up, mix it up … go ahead and hit that button all the way over there on the right. The one past grind and blend. Yes, puree. Toss all those words and ideas in the glass container, make sure the rubber lid is snugly secured, and leShake it up, stir it up, mix it up … go ahead and hit that button all the way over there on the right. The one past grind and blend. Yes, puree. Toss all those words and ideas in the glass container, make sure the rubber lid is snugly secured, and lean on that power button with all you’ve got.

The stories in "Roses are Red, Violets Are Stealing Loose Change from My Pockets While I Sleep" give you that feeling that anything goes. No, it’s not a feeling. It’s a fact. Anything does, indeed, go. The stories are free-floating, free-form, and fun. Words dance, ideas bounce off each other like ping-pong balls on speed, and bold associations fly in your face at warp speed.

There are more than a hundred entries in this collection of stories, but check your definition of ‘story’ before you leave the copyright page. These are idea bombs mixed with characters sketches loosely tossed with Hunter S. Thompon’s worst fever dreams after spending an hour on the psychiatrist’s couch under the nonsensical questioning of The Cheshire Cat. With a slightly different approach toward punctuation and white space, some of these “stories” could be turned into edgy poetry.

The bottom line? They are enormously fun to read and very well written. David S. Atkinson has a comedian’s timing and a playful vocabulary, though you may want to dip in every now and then. Read back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to (well you get the idea), you might feel overwhelmed, like glugging cream when you’re used to sipping low-fat milk.

Examples?

In “Eternal Insult Comics and Postal Forwarding Claim Forms,” the Apocalypse arrives in the mail. “A few thought about sending it back, marking the addressee deceased and leaving it on their porches again, but there were no longer any postal carriers to claim it.”

In “Exxon Stole my Oatmeal” (the shortest title here?) a pavement crack at a bus stop yields crude oil and our narrator decides to call, of course, the Republican National Committee. But the RNC is getting out of oil because “there was so much bad press. They were going into solar and wind just as soon as they could figure out how to lock down rights on the weather and the sun.”

The titles alone offer smiles. “Keebler Elves Live in Hollow Tress and Can Really Gum Up a Chainsaw.” Or “Polident Commercials for Indentured Servitude.” (Ouch.) Or one of my favorite stories, “Willy Wonka Spent More Time in OSHA Hearings Than Making Candy,” a story that never mentions OSHA but does find its way, in eight quick paragraphs, to reference Daryl Hannah, Peter Boyle, Sherlock Holmes (actually, his deaf brother), and “Marty Feldman commemorative chafing dishes.” Reading these, at times, feels very much like the world we live in today, text-Twitter-Instragram-MSNBC-Netflix-Facebook shrapnel flying our way all day long.

Writers looking for a jolt of stylistic jazz or looking to loosen up the synapses and give the tired old image bank a fresh infusion of goods, keep this volume handy.

Readers looking for an amusing smile every now and then, and a glimpse inside a keen and active imagination, keep Roses are Red (etc). within easy reach....more

By the time Gary Shteyngart is done with Barry Cohen, he has taken him down, all the way down, from his lofty perch of wealth and prestige.

Near the end of his cross-country trip on a Greyhound bus, Barry has slowly but surely shed personal belongingsBy the time Gary Shteyngart is done with Barry Cohen, he has taken him down, all the way down, from his lofty perch of wealth and prestige.

Near the end of his cross-country trip on a Greyhound bus, Barry has slowly but surely shed personal belongings, clothes, cash from his ever-dwindling wad, and the occasional layer of dignity even as he cheerfully, at times ecstatically, tries to connect with his fellow man. Or woman.

Well, Shteyngart has many ideas for how those connections will manifest themselves and Shteyngart throws everything at Barry to make him suffer. Or at least wonder. "Lake Success" is consumed with Barry’s escape from the mountain of personal, marital, and business woes he has left behind in New York City. He is running from his own ability to deal and cope with various pressures, including an SEC investigation into his trading practices, a recent diagnosis that his young son is autistic, and growing tensions with his beautiful Indian wife, Seema.

Barry’s throwback means of transportation and the cross-country journey itself are Barry’s idea. He feels a need to relive his college days and, in fact, we learn of many seminal moments from Barry’s college career, including the fact that way back when he really wanted to be a writer. For a financial whiz, in fact, Barry has many keen insights into the world of writing. He knows his Great Gatsby imagery and he laments one particular college attempt at creativity that, given the feedback, sent his career hurtling away from self-expression into the cold-hearted world of finance. It’s a zinger comment from his wife that serves as the flashpoint for Barry’s Quixotic search for himself. She accuses him of lacking an imagination and a soul. Gasp. How can this be true when Barry was clever enough to name his $2.4 billion hedge fund This Side of Capital, a tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel This Side of Paradise?

We all know Barry. He’s a one-percenter, a hedge fund manager with everything he needs back in New York. Why would he leave that well-curated cocoon of extravagant comforts? He is arrogant enough to leave his son precisely when his son needs him the most. He is fleeing the feds, he is escaping responsibility. As if that’s not enough, he owns and obsesses over a grotesquely large and obscenely expensive collection of watches. Barry doesn’t need to tell the time, he simply marvels at the internal machinery and the ability of the workings within. (I’m sure much could be drawn, and overdrawn from this ongoing metaphor; Shteyngart is also a nut about expensive and antique watches). By definition, Barry Cohen is to be loathed.

But we like him anyway—and that’s the feat Shteyngart has pulled off here. Barry can be generous. Barry can be accepting of others. Barry sees beauty where others may not. Barry is a gamer. He is willing to try new things, even if he needs a few tips on how to light up his first knob of crack. This titan of money has hit the road and he is open to whatever he encounters, as long as some of those he bumps into will take his advice about potential improvements he suggests to improve the arcs of their lives.

Having chosen the wrong fork early on, Cohen is now the dispenser of wisdom. This applies also to his attempt to reinsert himself in the life of a long-ago college sweetheart, Layla. If he can pick up with her, well, the old Barry Cohen will be restored! The scenes with Layla and her son are particularly heartfelt and touching. There is a Kerouacian lightness and energy to his journey, and Shteyngart includes ample references to beat writers to be sure we don’t miss the parallel. This, too, fits with Barry’s interest in writing.

The story switches back and forth to Seema, who is starting an affair with the neighbor/writer and struggling with the many loose ends that Barry has left behind.

The writing is effortless, breezy, casual, funny, and original even if the story feels like a Mix Master of On The Road, Bonfire of the Vanities and, yes, The Great Gatsby. Not a moment feels forced. Okay, maybe one particular moment felt, to me, like too much. Sex and lust seem the subtext for almost everything Barry does so perhaps the moment in question is not egregious. Perhaps it’s inevitable. In the very end, Barry gets off (no pun intended) fairly easily for having abandoned his family precisely when they need him most. But is anything ever going to really hurt the one percent?

All this takes place in the run-up to the election of the current guy in the White House and one can imagine a thousand book club discussions about what "Lake Success" is or isn’t saying about The Trumpster Fire. Does Barry Cohen represent all of the uber-rich? Um, I wouldn’t know. I doubt it. He’s too enthusiastic about other people’s lives (in a very up close and personal way). It might be a touch difficult to leave that a guy who has made millions is often clueless about how the real world works, that he needs the Greyhound-level view to school himself, but we all want to go along for the ride....more

The story of the Clarinda A’s is the story of baseball for baseball’s sake. "The Baseball Whisperer: A Small Town Coach Who Shaped Big-League Dreams" is the story of the man behind the team, Merl Eberly, and some of the key major league players who lThe story of the Clarinda A’s is the story of baseball for baseball’s sake. "The Baseball Whisperer: A Small Town Coach Who Shaped Big-League Dreams" is the story of the man behind the team, Merl Eberly, and some of the key major league players who learned the sport or learned about themselves by spending a season or two in the scrappy world of collegiate summer ball. This is real-life Field of Dreams stuff, sure, and the book is a refreshing read. There’s almost a Norman Rockwell flavor to the Heartland setting.

But for every Ozzie Smith, who came to Clarinda as a long-shot hopeful with physical limitations and left to pursue a career that would land him in the Hall of Fame, there are hundreds and hundreds of wannabes and others who played the game because they loved it and, well, maybe. Just maybe.

Eberly worked on his dream for more than fifty years. Eberly hustled for sponsors, coached the athletes, found jobs for his prospects, and kept his coaxed his clunky “Blue Goose” bus on the road through repair after repair. More than anything, Eberly started with character development. He was the Uber Boy Scout of baseball—hard work and responsibility were taught right alongside knowing how to hit a curve ball.

Michael Tackett’s portrait of Eberly and the town of Clarinda tries to make a case that the All-American values are key to the success of the program and also to the players who made it to the big leagues—a list that also included current Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black, former longtime Philadelphia Phillies outfielder and first baseman Von Hayes, and former journeyman and infielder Jamey Carroll, whose story Is really the stuff of dreams. Carroll played in the minors for seven years before reaching the major leagues due to a fluke call-up by the Montreal Expos. He never returned to the minor leagues. Carroll’s career ran from 2002 through 2013 and he collected precisely 1,000 hits. Carroll was known for his “intangibles,” including his hustle and determination. Rod Eberly, Carroll’s Clarinda teammate at the time and Merl Eberly’s son, said Carroll “embodied everything my dad preached … Discipline, fundamentals, control your effort, because the effort is the one thing you can control. You can control how you show up every day on the field. He (Carroll) was a 100 percent guy all the time. He was very competitive. He hated to lose, a lot like my dad. He didn’t just say you needed to hustle, he did it.”

By its title alone, "The Baseball Whisperer" suggests that Merl had some secret sauce he could splash on his players and turn them into major leaguers. Ballplayers who joined the A’s were expected to take jobs and be good citizens of Clarinda (and house guests) in addition to working hard on their game. Merl wanted his graduates to be “complete” ball players and good people, too. It’s impossible to miss the lesson here that character counts as much as knowing the fundamentals of bunting or how to get extension on your swing. Tackett’s profile of Merl borders occasionally on reverence. “The old coach had an aura about him, a combination of fortitude, elegance, and athleticism, even as he reached his sixties and seventies. He was a player’s coach, and for three months he was also like their father. He carried himself with a sense of calm, and he passed baseball wisdom down like heirlooms, hoping that his players would do the same.”

But Merl’s record and career—and his own hustle—speak for itself. Baseball is mythical and poetic for lots of reasons. Tackett’s story is a strong non-fiction account of a town where legends are groomed and of the coach whose purposeful, character-first philosophy molded many big names. Merl Eberly died in 2011. The Clarinda A’s will start their 65th season in 2019. ...more

Scott Lasser’s Battle Creek pulls us deep into the fate of a minor league baseball team in Michigan, but it’s also a study in the struggles of the men whose lives are deeply entangled in the game.Some of the coaches and players have already had theirScott Lasser’s Battle Creek pulls us deep into the fate of a minor league baseball team in Michigan, but it’s also a study in the struggles of the men whose lives are deeply entangled in the game.Some of the coaches and players have already had their shot in the big leagues, others are hoping to get it. The Koch and Sons baseball team is kind of holding cell for some, potential ticket to the big time for others.

The main focus is on the coach, Gil Davison. His amateur baseball team is successful, but Gil has made up his mind that this will be his last season. He wants to go out on top. For four years, his team has made the national finals, only to lose. This year, winning trumps friendships and feel-good stories. Players who don’t contribute will be cut.

There’s also Vince Paklos, Gil’s chain smoking sidekick, and the seasoned, world-weary pitcher Ben Mercer, who is trying to keep the pains from an aching elbow to himself and who is seriously in love, “as if some terrible fever has overtaken him.” The cast is rounded out by Luke James, who is out on parole after serving five years for murder. Luke might just be the key player to help Gil field a winning team.

Death is everywhere. Gil is dealing with the failing health of his 98-year-old father and still coming to grips with the loss of his son, killed when his bike entered the path of a “wood-paneled 1972 Chevrolet station wagon.” (Lasser loves the details about car makes and models.) Gil’s days are loaded with woe. In addition, Vince is pondering his own fate (and sucking down cigarettes with joy) and there is the death Luke has already administered.

Lasser builds his characters and their issues with gritty realism of money, love, meals, religion, reputations, and the little aches and pains of daily life. Whether on the way up or on the way down, all the players seem to be living on borrowed time and a mountain of hope.

The entire set-up might feel a bit over-wrought if it weren’t for Lasser’s stark, unblinking prose. Lasser shifts perspective easily; the four threads interweave like short stories.

The business of death darkens every page. Gil goes to extreme measures. Fate comes around in surprising fashion.

The team’s sponsor (Koch and Sons) is a funeral home. By the end of the story, the sponsor is underwriting a funeral. It’s not the one you might think. When it comes, the service feels harsh, the loss feels terribly unfair. Like baseball itself, life is full of sudden misfortune. There is no good way to explain what has happened. A “little luck” goes both ways—good and bad....more

Leave it to Manuel Ramos to drop a wry pun in the subtitle of The Golden Havana Night.

It’s “A Sherlock Homie Adventure,” we are told, and it’s such a winking and witty reference you have to wonder how or why nobody else dreamed it up before.

Both HolmLeave it to Manuel Ramos to drop a wry pun in the subtitle of The Golden Havana Night.

It’s “A Sherlock Homie Adventure,” we are told, and it’s such a winking and witty reference you have to wonder how or why nobody else dreamed it up before.

Both Holmes and the term “homie” go back to the late 19th Century, what took so long for a writer to mash them up?

This particular homie is Gus Corral, first introduced in Ramos’ 2013 novel Desperado. The brass plaque on his office door says Augustin Corral—Investigator. But he is also an ex-con and he is still earning his private eye stripes and finding his bearings on the occasionally mean streets of Denver. Gus gets his office furniture from Goodwill. (This is no Sherlock Holmes pastiche.)

“It’s no news flash that ex-cons weren’t usually at the top of the list of likely-to-be-hired, no matter what the job might be,” Gus tells us. “I thought I was good at what I did; a bit more experience and I’d be excellent, I told myself on those days when no one called, no one stopped by the office.” Corral is a survivor and he is trying to shake the “prison paranoia.” He tries to not always assume the worst about people. Afterall, he makes a living on other people’s troubles.

The latest client with troubles is none other than Cuban defector Joaquin “Kino” Machaco, who walks into Gus Corral’s office with no appointment. He’s the highly paid all-star center fielder for the Colorado Rockies and he’s quite insistent that Gus is the right guy for the job at hand. “The ballplayer loomed over me like a gorilla about to smash a termite nest. I pushed back my chair to open breathing space between the surprise visitor and me.”

Kino needs to have $500,000 ferried to Cuba. Kino’s brother Alberto left Cuba at the same time as Kino but is in debt to a mobbed-up dude named Miguel “Hoochie” Almeida. To complicate matters (why not?) Kino happened to have killed Hoochie’s brother before he defected. Since wire transfers to Cuba don’t work and since Kino is no position to make the trip himself, he is asking Gus to head to Havana with Kino’s brother and make sure the pay-off happens.

More importantly, to “make sure nothing goes screwy.”

Spoiler alert: it does.

Despite warning from one sister, Gus heads south. Within hours of landing in Cuba, there is a barrage of bullets, a hideous and bloody van-versus-ox crash, the precious money goes missing, and Gus wakes up in a room stretched out and shackled to a bed. And thus begins Gus’ efforts to sort through the true nature of his captors, who claim official government status, and to decipher the complicated world into which he’s been tossed, a world where “everything is a secret and yet nothing is a secret.”

Not starting from a power position even in his home country, Gus is now trapped by unknown forces in a foreign land and the situation calls for Gus to go with the flow, which leads to a road trip to Trinidad and some keen observations of the colorful Cuban countryside, along with a sampling of rum and cigars along the way. This section is contemplative and pastoral, with Gus trying to suppress his relentless paranoia. Gus is ever alert and wary, but savvy enough to take advantage of the opportunity to absorb Cuba and also figure out the true nature and intentions of those around him. There are observations about cultural and language differences and the changing face of Cuba, too. The radar Gus developed in prison proves handy, so does what he learned from all the prison-time reading.

Some aspects of the Cuban case wait for resolution after Gus returns to Denver. Those loose ends get wrapped up in startling fashion. There is also challenging subplot, involving bad cops in Denver, that causes significant “wear and tear” on Gus’ psyche. The parallel case practically begs for a college-level essay comparing and contrasting police corruption in Cuba and any good old American city. In Ramos’ hands, however, this is done in subtle style and is underplayed. Story first, lecture never. The writing is cool and down to earth. We sense the streets and Gus' growing unease. Snaking throughout the whole book is the dark business of random drivers being shot and killed along the I-25 corridor.

This is Gus Corral’s world and it can get messy. The Golden Havana Night carries a deliciously organic flavor. The writing is rich, but not overdone. The pages fly. Supporting players, such as Gus’ two opinionated sisters, are developed with care. At the end, of course, we all want Gus Corral back as soon as possible to show us the city of Denver, or anywhere else in the world, through his jaded, homie eyes....more

"A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing" starts with a story called “The Camp at Cutthroat Lake.”

The opening is bucolic:

“Two boys and a man in his late forties sit in an aluminum rowboat in the middle of a lake at the bottom of a broad mountain ba"A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing" starts with a story called “The Camp at Cutthroat Lake.”

The opening is bucolic:

“Two boys and a man in his late forties sit in an aluminum rowboat in the middle of a lake at the bottom of a broad mountain basin. The lake mirrors the sky of a calm summer afternoon, but tendrils of cold air coming down from the surrounding crags will soon dispel the fragile illusion of warmth.”

If there are two words that sum up this entire collection of sharply-drawn, memorable stories, it might be “fragile illusion.” In Tim Weed’s stories, reality often slips away. Or slips in and out of focus. Or reality, if you’re not paying attention, will reach up and grab you by the throat. The opening beauty of “Cutthroat Lake” quickly becomes a stark lesson in life and death with a “faint, dry pop.”

Self-discovery is one theme in this collection. So is loneliness. And longing—the alluring Cuban women in “The Money Pill,” the elusive Soledad on Granada in “The Foreigner” and the tempting Kate in “A Winter Break in Rome.”

Nature is a major presence and sometimes an active participant, dealing its vicious cards in random fashion. There is always movement and activity, real people putting in real work for outdoorsy pursuits or a paycheck, either way. The stories themselves move quickly, too. There’s an entire trip up river to the dense jungles and back, including a major moral quandary and a strained relationship between two scientists, in the brisk pages of “Mouth of the Tropics.”

Weed takes us to New Hampshire and Nantucket, The Andes and Venezuela, and Rome and Cuba, too. His characters are primarily young men and they are often strangers in a foreign land—even the construction worker Phil in “Scrimshaw” commutes by plane to Nantucket and marvels at the island, “an Aladdin’s lamp crescent of sand and yellow-green heath; a rich man’s playground of weathered cedar cottages and summer mansions.” (Watch for the allusions to magic, like the Aladdin reference; they are plentiful.) When there isn’t regular travel, Weed’s men drop acid, contemplate hallucinations, or ponder their own powerful dreams.

Weed sets vivid scenes with ease. The landscape is never in doubt. It’s very hard to imagine, after reading these thirteen entries, that Weed could write a story set entirely under fluorescent lights in an office building (but I wouldn’t mind seeing him try). But don’t think landscape as scenery, think landscape as character. It is frequently integrated front and center, as it is in “Diamondback Mountain” and in the most heart-pounding story here, “Keepers.”

The writing is muscular and tough, but Weed’s characters are often open to their sensitivities and vulnerabilities. (Not always; see “The Money Pill” or “Scrimshaw.”) But in stories like “The Dragon of Conchagua,” in which a former Peace Corps volunteer named John returns to Ecuador in an attempt to scale a high-altitude volcano, the main character is keenly aware of a key memory from his youth, one that involved his hiking partner Gabe, and puzzles over a fleeting apparition. John comes across a wrecked vintage Cessna, the fuselage half-consumed by pillow moss. “Kneeling to peer into the cockpit, he sensed a fast-moving object overhead and glanced up reflexively, fear gripping his gut like a fist. But apart from blue sky and a few lingering wisps of fog, there was nothing to see. Taking a deep breath, he squinted down into the cockpit. Once again, there was nothing to see.” This moment neatly foreshadows the harrowing finish with both flight and visions playing key roles.

Immersive, visceral, and chock full of sensory detail, “A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing” is a winner from first story to last. Murder? Yes, it’s here. But in the traditional sense it’s in short supply. Fly fishing? Yes, it’s here. But in the traditional sense, it’s in short supply. Like the stories within, the title of this collection is a bit of a fragile illusion....more

“Allison Coil stroked the soft neck of the massive bull elk. The skin was still warm to the touch. She felt the smooth fur on the animal’s head, looked at the crimson dot on its skull that leaked blood, then pressed her index finger against the spot where death had found an opening.”
―
Mark Stevens,
Antler Dust

“A lesson, please,” said Vic. “You might not be around to hold my hand the next time I bring down an elk.” “You’ve taken your kill for this season, mister,” Allison said. “If you learn how to do this right, you can hold one of your buddies’ hands.” She looked”
―
Mark Stevens,
Antler Dust

“Work/Loaf Ratio”...I have spent fourteen years perfecting... I won't bore you with a long-winded explanation of the “W/LR” save to say that it is an algebraic formula of such complex numeric subtlety that it can be understood only by mathematicians and hobos.”
―
Gary Reilly,
The Heart of Darkness Club

“I didn't offer to help him carry any of his stuff. That's the unwritten code between cabbies and movers.... It's his punishment for tricking the cab driver into playing Mayflower, because he knows he's not going to give you a tip, and so do you.”
―
Gary Reilly,
The Heart of Darkness Club

“One thing I had learned in college was that if you ever had a question about truth, reality, or the meaning of existence, read a novel by Albert Camus. Pretty soon you'll be so baffled you'll forget the question.”
―
Gary Reilly,
The Heart of Darkness Club

The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group
— 18147 members
— last activity 1 hour, 6 min ago
December 2018 Group Reads - Night has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich and The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow _ _ _ _ _ “It was a dark and stormyDecember 2018 Group Reads - Night has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich and The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow _ _ _ _ _
“It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the sky. Rain spattered a mysterious, hooded stranger who peered over the hedgerow at the darkened, quiet house.”
Do lines like these quicken your heartbeat and pique your interest? Then Welcome to the Mystery, Crime and Thriller Group! This is the place for you.
Join our intrepid moderators, “DCI” Donna, “Sherlock” Hayes, Nancy “Drew”, and “Cat Burglar” Bill as we read and discuss our favourites, recommend new authors and explore the Genre.
This is the meeting place for readers to discuss their favourites and recommend new authors, and the place for budding and established mystery, crime and thriller writers to introduce us to their efforts. You can travel into the past to discover great characters like Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Maigret and others; journey around the world to other countries and meet Aussie Phryne Fisher, Norwegian Harry Hole and so many others; just relax on your couch and experience the wonders of Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey, etc; or hard-boiled, tired gumshoes like Travis McGee and Kinsey Milhone. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the wonderfully varied world that is Mystery, Crime and Thrillers.
Join us and have a great time!
Your Moderators: Donna, Hayes, Bill and Nancy....more

THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
— 6891 members
— last activity 7 hours, 17 min ago
ALL GENRE COMMUNITY OF BOOK LOVERS-Perfect for those interested in good books of any genre, film and lively discussion!- from current fiction, thrilleALL GENRE COMMUNITY OF BOOK LOVERS-Perfect for those interested in good books of any genre, film and lively discussion!- from current fiction, thrillers, non-fiction, poetry(Emily Dickinson,Robert Frost, Donne etc), ghost stories, sci-fi/fantasy(Gaiman,Pratchett,Rowland) to classic literature and new voices in writing. Wonderfully polite and incisive discussions- Dedicated to Late Great actor James Mason.
Also great for classic film fans!
open to readers of all genres...more

Reviewers United
— 580 members
— last activity Oct 30, 2018 09:36AM
This group is for those who would like to connect to their goodreads friends on Facebook, Twitter, and their personal blogs. Hopefully, the added follThis group is for those who would like to connect to their goodreads friends on Facebook, Twitter, and their personal blogs. Hopefully, the added followers will increase our chances at the most requested ARC's. ...more

Mystery Lovers!
— 1736 members
— last activity Dec 12, 2018 01:04PM
Rain-on-the-windowpanes, chains-in-the-attic, figures struggling on the moor...this group is for fans of mystery! Find a book series, chat over sleut
Rain-on-the-windowpanes, chains-in-the-attic, figures struggling on the moor...this group is for fans of mystery! Find a book series, chat over sleuths, recommend favorite authors, play games & trivia. Visit the genre page, or check out a list--
Better still..select a book from our shelf and curl up with a good, STIFF drink..
Authors (if newly joined), check-in; review our ground rules...
Graphics: Edwin Gorey, Font: Cool Text.com...more

readers advisory for all
— 4226 members
— last activity 11 hours, 16 min ago
life's too short to read crappy books. this is why readers' advisory exists. feel free to join if you are looking for "a book like____" or "a book thalife's too short to read crappy books. this is why readers' advisory exists. feel free to join if you are looking for "a book like____" or "a book that has ___ in it," or if you are just curious about the methods involved in readers' advisory. most RA professionals use resources like subscription databases or books or listservs. we are going to try this out here to see if a social networking site can be useful for future RA work....more

Reading and Writing podcast
— 23 members
— last activity Mar 01, 2016 11:01AM
A group to discuss books you're reading, books you're looking forward to reading, and books you would recommend others read. We'll also discuss booksA group to discuss books you're reading, books you're looking forward to reading, and books you would recommend others read. We'll also discuss books and authors interviewed on the Reading and Writing podcast - www.readingandwritingpodcast.com ...more

Authors Lounge
— 1060 members
— last activity Oct 29, 2018 12:55PM
A place for authors to exchange ideas and share information on Goodreads. Or otherwise, unwind, relax and meet other authors. This is our place whereA place for authors to exchange ideas and share information on Goodreads. Or otherwise, unwind, relax and meet other authors. This is our place where we can be ourselves....more

Q&A with Noah Murphy
— 261 members
— last activity Mar 05, 2012 08:29AM
Ask Noah about the world of K23 Detectives, himself, or anything else related to his work.

Make a book a bestseller
— 965 members
— last activity Sep 23, 2014 03:20PM
If a bunch of people can get Betty White to host Saturday Night Live seems like we can make a great book(s) a bestseller.

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